Tangled Bonds
by Satanira
Summary: Prequel to The Ties That Bind. Rated for violence, language, questionable flashback content. Don't blame me if it doesn't make sense. Review, please.


Here you go, Songwind. All for you. How it all began for Donn and her Bishies. The extended version of the condensed version found in chapter seven of The Ties That Bind. Yet another product of my twisted, tainted, freaky imagination.

Okay, I'm done now. Read the story.

Words couldn't begin to describe how relieved Donn was to get out of that building. Yes, it was big, bright, and open. Sure, everyone there had been friendly to her. But it was still inside.

She stopped for a minute to really enjoy being outside. She hadn't been able to when she'd first found herself in this place. Then, she'd been scared witless and not noticing much besides the irrefutable fact that she was somehow miraculously alive. In fact, she'd been curled up in a shallow cave, terrified out of her mind, when Alice had found her.

Alice had been very nice, giving Donn something to wear besides the sexed-up leather gear she'd had on, feeding her, and even taking her to Orientation. But then she'd run off somewhere with her pet bunny.

The rest of the newbies were gone for the most part, and Donn figured it was her turn to high-tail it out of there. If she only had two weeks to ensure her place here, she sure as hell wasn't going to waste a whole day oggling at the scenery.

In next to no time at all, she'd gotten herself good and lost, and intended to stay that way as long as humanly possible. After all, she had food, actual clothes, a bedroll, and enough supplies to last a week, and she'd been living on less for the past year.

"Fourteen years old and already out on my own." She said out loud, smiling. "And damned if it doesn't feel good." She twirled in a circle, staring up at a patch of sky between the branches.

The woods had always been her favorite place when she'd been little; there was something about all that nature all over, laughing in the face of humanity, that made her feel calm and secure. Nature was her best friend at the moment.

She was so caught up in her surroundings that she didn't notice the boy until she ran right into him.

She fell to the ground with an all-purpose sound of surprise and pain, landing on a rock with another yelp. Then she looked up and screamed.

In her irrational subconscious, the attractive brunette in front of her looked exactly like him, so she grabbed the first thing that came to hand- one of her Bishballs- and threw it at him with all her strength. When he disappeared, she thought maybe she was hallucinating. Then thought returned, and she realized she'd just caught a Bishonen.

Slowly, she crawled over to the Bishball and picked it up. Nothing happened, and she began to breath a little easier. Whoever he was, he wasn't a threat. And she needed him to stay here, so she might as well get used to him. So she really should let him out.

"Let's hope he plays nice." She muttered nervously to herself, opening the ball.

She ruthlessly suppressed the urge to scream again, although she flinched a little when the brunette appeared again.

He was busy looking at her strangely and rubbing the side of his head.

"You know," he said conversationally, standing up, "I may be wrong here, but isn't it kind of rude to scream like that and then throw things at total strangers? Are you okay? You look kind of pale."

"I-I'm fine." Donn said, standing up herself. "M-my name's Donn. What's yours?"

"Heero." He said. "Heero Yuy. Are you sure you're okay? You're my trainer now, and I really don't like traveling with sick people."

"I'm not sick." Donn reassured him, looking up at the sky. "But I am tired, and it's getting kind of late, s-so we should set up camp."

Heero also looked up at the patch of pinkish-red clouds and still-blue sky showing through the tree branches, and nodded. "It doesn't look like rain, so we can stay here." He said quietly. "I'll go get some firewood."

Donn watched him disappear into the gloom under the surrounding trees. He seemed nice enough, but he was still a man. She knew it was irrational to think all men were like her tormentor, but rationality had very little to do with the preteen mind. Or fear, for that matter.

But that didn't change the fact that she needed him to stay here, and she'd have to overcome her fear if she was going to survive. Being forced to associate with Heero on a daily basis, while terrifying, might actually be good for her.

"Guff!" She exclaimed when she realized how dark it was. "I'm woolgathering! At my age!" Then she got up and set about making a tidy, comfortable camp for two, judiciously placing Heero's tent on the other side of the fire pit.

Heero returned to find her rummaging through her supplies, singing under her breath as she tried to figure out how to make a decent meal with what was essentially beef jerky, bread, rice, and dried fruit. He dropped his load of wood next to the pit she'd dug with a clatter, causing her to jump and give a choked-off yelp.

"Good gods, Heero, don't do that!" She exclaimed, staring at him a little too wild-eyed to be simply surprised. "I'd really rather not have a heart attack my first day here!"

"Gomen." Heero said, setting to work on the fire. "I'll try to make more noise from now on." He glanced over at Donn, who'd gone back to preparing the dinner menu. She was scared of him; he was positive of that much, at least. The question was, why?

Donn finally finished choosing the main course- freeze-dried ground beef- and made her way to the fire. "Now, let's see if my skills haven't gotten rusty." She muttered to herself.

She'd somehow retained all the skill she'd once had for campfire cooking, and the meal was very good. They ate all of it, and then she slipped into her tent, claiming fatigue, which left Heero to do the dishes.

He did them without complaint; he was used to chores and actually didn't mind them all that much. Besides, he had something he wanted to figure out, and he didn't want her getting curious.

Donn woke up the next morning feeling wonderful. It had been a very, very long time since she'd been outside; almost as long since she's slept in a place with no bars.

Alice had given her a hairbrush and a few hair ties to deal with her dark, waist length hair. She grabbed them and slipped outside, sitting cross-legged next to the significantly smaller fire, and proceeded to fight with her hair.

She tried to brush the tangled mess and cursed inventively for about ten minutes before Heero came out of his tent and offered to do the brushing for her.

"I hate having long hair." She said, gratefully surrendering the brush. "I didn't want to grow it out. He made me. And he never gave me anything I could cut it with. I want short hair again. Not as short as yours, mind. I want it to come just a little past my shoulders." She mentally cursed herself for babbling, but that was what she did whenever she was nervous.

"Would you like me to cut it for you?" Heero asked, startling his trainer. "It wouldn't be too hard, and I have a pair of scissors somewhere."

"Um...well... sure." Donn said, not really sure what exactly she was so afraid of. Heero had done nothing to harm her; in fact, he seemed to be going out of his way to be gentle with her. Like he knew she was afraid and didn't want to scare her more.

Maybe, just maybe, it was working.

Heero finished straightening out Donn's bangs, making sure both sides were even. It had only taken ten minutes, but his trainer seemed to feel that was about nine minutes too long.

"Done." He said, putting his scissors down. "Would you like a mirror?"

"That's okay." She said, standing up and stretching. For the first time, Heero noticed how incredibly short she was. He was easily a full foot taller than her. Amazing that he'd missed something that incredibly obvious.

Donn twirled in a quick circle, her newly-shortened hair flying out around her. She came to a stop facing Heero, and smiled timidly at him.

"Thanks." She said quietly. "L-let's break camp and head out, okay?" She walked to her tent and proceeded to wrestle with said evil cloth contraption, trying to take it down. (A/N- I'm glomping my genius of a lil sis for this line, peoples! Yay!)

After a moment, Heero went across the small clearing and collapsed his own tent with practiced efficiency. He sat and watched Donn wage war against her unyielding tent for about five minutes, then gave up and went to help her.

I know this is very short, but I wanted to get it out there. I'll probably do this one in short pieces like this, since my muse abandoned me.


End file.
